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Tuesday, July 11, 2017

Cartel Jalisco New Generation: The Brutal Rise of "El Mencho"

On a
hot, humid night last August, two wealthy Mexican brothers went out to party in
Puerto Vallarta.

Ivan,
35, and Jesus Alfredo Guzmán, 29, had been vacationing in the resort city all
week. Now it was Sunday, the night before Ivan's 36th birthday, and they booked
a table at an upscale restaurant called La Leche to celebrate. Six men and nine
women joined them there – young, attractive and well-dressed, driving Range
Rovers and Escalades – where they sat at a long candle-lit table in the center
of the all-white room, ordered champagne and sang "Happy Birthday."
Three hours later they were wrapping up their night when, shortly after
midnight, a half-dozen men with assault rifles burst in and surrounded them.

One gunman forced Ivan to his knees, then kicked him hard in the ribs, sending him
sprawling to the floor. Jesus Alfredo was also held at gunpoint. The brothers
and the other men were then hustled out to two waiting SUVs and driven off into
the night, while the women were left unharmed. The whole operation took less than
two minutes – the restaurant's owner would later describe it as "violent,
but very clean." And thus, without a shot being fired, the two youngest
sons of notorious Sinaloa Cartel boss Joaquín Guzmán – a.k.a. "El
Chapo" – had been kidnapped.

Chapo's
sons had made the mistake of partying on the turf of Sinaloa's newest and most
dangerous rival: an upstart cartel boss named Rubén Oseguera Cervantes – alias
"El Mencho." A former Jalisco state policeman who once served three
years in a U.S. prison for selling heroin, Mencho heads what many experts call
Mexico's fastest-growing, deadliest and, according to some, richest drug cartel– the Cartel Jalisco Nueva Generación, or CJNG. Although he's basically unknown
in the U.S., Mencho has been indicted in a D.C. federal court on charges of
drug trafficking, corruption and murder, and currently has a $5 million bounty
on his head. Aside from perhaps Rafael Caro Quintero – the aging drug lord
still wanted for the 1985 torture and killing of a DEA agent – he is probably
America's top cartel target. "It was Chapo," says a DEA source.
"Now it's Mencho."

CJNG
have been around for only about half a decade, but with their dizzyingly swift
rise, they have already achieved what took Sinaloa a generation. The cartel has
established trafficking routes in dozens of countries on six continents and
controls territory spanning half of Mexico, including along both coasts and
both borders. "[CJNG] have increased their operations like no other
criminal organization to date," said a classified Mexican intelligence
report obtained by the newspaper El Universal. This past May, Mexico's attorney
general, Raúl Cervantes, declared them the most ubiquitous cartel in the
country.

CJNG
specialize in methamphetamine, which has higher profit margins than cocaine or
heroin. By focusing on lucrative foreign markets in Europe and Asia, the cartel
has simultaneously maintained a low profile in the U.S. and built up a massive
war chest, which some experts estimate is worth $20 billion. "These guys
have way more money than Sinaloa," says a former DEA agent who spent years
hunting the cartel in Mexico (and who requested anonymity for security
reasons). According to another U.S. investigator, "Mencho has been very,
very aggressive – and so far, unfortunately, it's paid off."

Though
most Americans might not realize it, Mexico's cartels have been almost
uniformly weakened. The notoriously fearsome Zetas – ex-special-forces
commandos who terrorized the country with mutilations and beheadings – have
been crippled by costly turf wars and the arrest of their top leaders. Other
once-powerful groups like the Knights Templar and Gulf Cartel have also been marginalized.
Even mighty Sinaloa have descended into infighting following El Chapo's recent
extradition to New York, as multiple factions, including Chapo's sons, his
younger brother, and his former partner Ismael "Mayo" Zambada, battle
for control.

This
balkanization has made Mexico a breeding ground for violence. Since Chapo's
arrest in January 2016, the country's homicide rate has increased more than 20
percent, with 20,000 murders last year alone – more than in Iraq or
Afghanistan. In the first five months of 2017, the homicide rate leapt another
30 percent. Thousands of these killings can be chalked up to CJNG's push for
territory. Vast burial sites have been discovered in states where the cartel
has been most aggressive, like Veracruz, which the state attorney general
recently described as a "giant grave"; in Colima, where CJNG and
Sinaloa spent last year fighting for supremacy, the murder rate more than
tripled.

"We've
seen it become very bloody, and a lot of people attribute that to El Mencho himself,"
says Scott Stewart, a senior cartel analyst at Stratfor, a private intelligence
firm. "Wherever they try to muscle in, it creates bodies."

Mencho
has also displayed a savagery that's extreme even by narco standards. For the
admittedly brutal Chapo, killing was a necessary part of business. For Mencho,
it seems more like sadism as public spectacle. There have been mass killings,
such as the 35 bound and tortured bodies dumped in the streets of Veracruz
during evening rush hour in 2011. Two years later, CJNG operatives raped,
killed and set fire to a 10-year-old girl whom they (mistakenly) believed was a
rival's daughter. In 2015, CJNG assassins executed a man and his
elementary-school-age son by detonating sticks of dynamite duct-taped to their
bodies, laughing as they filmed the ghastly scene with their phones. "This
is ISIS stuff," says one DEA agent who has investigated the cartel.
"The manner in which they kill people, the sheer numbers – it's
unparalleled even in Mexico."

The
ISIS comparison is instructive for another reason. When Chapo was at the height
of his power, following Mexico's bloody cartel wars of a decade ago, the country
enjoyed a period of relative peace – what the novelist and drug-war chronicler
Don Winslow has dubbed the "Pax Sinaloa." But much like how the
Islamic State grew from the vacuum of post-Saddam Iraq, one unintended
consequence of taking out Chapo may have been opening the door for someone even
worse.

Only a
handful of photos of Mencho are known to exist, and even the State Department's
description of him is comically nondescript: He's five feet eight, 165 pounds,
brown eyes, brown hair. Narco balladeers have celebrated his rumored love of
fast motorbikes and $100,000 cockfights – one of his nicknames is "El
Señor de los Gallos," "The Lord of the Roosters" – but
otherwise, he's a cipher. "Over 25 years of working in Mexico, you'd run
into guys who had met Chapo, who would talk about him," the former DEA
agent says. "But with Mencho, you don't hear that. He's kind of a
ghost."

In a
way, kidnapping El Chapo's sons served as Mencho's coming-out party. "The
plan was to kill them," a DEA source says. "[CJNG] were going to
kidnap them, get the confessions they wanted, and then whack 'em."

But at
the last minute, Chapo – at the time still locked up in Mexico – was able to
negotiate a deal. In exchange for what the DEA source calls "$2 million
and a whole lot of dope," both sons were released unharmed.

The
ransom payment was largely ceremonial. "Mencho doesn't need the
money," the source says. "He was sending a message. 'Your old man is
locked up now. Don't think you're untouchable.' " From Cancún to
California, the warning was clear. Mencho was coming for the throne.

A
Mexican soldier stands on guard at the Villareal farm, where more than 15 tons
of methanphetamine were found, in Tlajomulco, Jalisco state, Mexico, 09
February 2012. Soldiers also found 4575 liters of chemicals and 2400 kilos of
caustic soda.

Jalisco
is, in many ways, the quintessential Mexican state. Mariachi music was born
there; so were tequila and sombreros. The state's motto is "Jalisco es
México." For decades the state was a neutral zone for the cartels: Many
wealthy narcos kept homes in the capital, Guadalajara – a picture-postcard
colonial city nicknamed "The Pearl of the West" – while beachside
resort towns like Puerto Vallarta were a favorite vacation spot not just for
drug lords but Mexican politicians as well.

But
Jalisco is also, strategically speaking, hugely important real estate for the
drug trade. As Mexico's second-largest city and a major financial and
transportation hub, Guadalajara offers plentiful opportunities for
money-laundering and recruitment. Jalisco also sits near Mexico's two largest
seaports, Manzanillo and Lázaro Cárdenas – which come in handy for shipping out
multi-ton drug loads. "If I had to pick a major factor [that enabled
Mencho's rise]," says Special Agent Kyle Mori of the DEA's Los Angeles
field division, "it's that he had a huge geographical advantage."

Mori,
35, is square-jawed and earnest, with the friendly authority of a park ranger,
albeit one who carries a Glock. But he's also "a bulldog when it comes to
investigations," says his supervisor, DEA Special Agent in Charge James
Comer. Prior to joining the DEA, Mori worked as an L.A. County sheriff's deputy
on patrol in Compton. Now, as the agency's foremost investigator into CJNG –
and the agent who helped prepare the 2014 indictment against Mencho – he knows
the cartel probably better than anyone in America. "I've been working
these guys pretty much since I started," Mori says. "This is what I
do."

The
first time Mencho popped up on Mori's radar was a fluke. Back in 2010, Mori was
working on an unrelated money-laundering case with a field agent in Guadalajara
who told him about a fresh target, a new cartel: "They're a huge problem
down here in Jalisco. When Chapo gets picked up, these guys are gonna run theshow."

At thetime, CJNG were billing themselves as saviors. Answering to the name Mata Zetas
– or Zeta Killers – they dressed in black paramilitary gear and posted
propaganda videos in which they claimed to be fighting the Zetas for the people
of Mexico. "We do not extort, kidnap, rob, oppress or in any other way
disturb the national well-being," one video said. "Our only objective
is to finish off the Zetas."

"This
is a guy who'll execute your whole family based on not much more than a
rumor," a source says. "He just has zero regard for human life."

But as
Stratfor's Stewart says of the drug war, "There really aren't any Robin
Hoods in Mexico." It was soon revealed that CJNG weren't good guys at all,
but just another cartel trying to protect its nascent methamphetamine empire.

In a
2008 diplomatic cable ("Chemical City: Guadalajara, Jalisco and the Meth
Trade"), a U.S. official detailed how Jalisco had become Mexico's capital
for synthetic drugs. Unlike heroin or marijuana, meth didn't require large
plots of land or good weather – just isolated areas in which to build labs.
Guadalajara also had a thriving pharmaceutical industry, with young chemists
full of technical know-how. And then there were the Pacific ports, which
allowed CJNG to smuggle in vast quantities of precursor chemicals from India
and China, and smuggle out the finished product.

"These
guys were huge early adopters of methamphetamine," Stewart says.
"They also understood the economics: Unlike cocaine, which they had to buy
from the Colombians, with meth, they controlled the lion's share of the
profits."

But
according to a DEA analyst, "The problem with meth guys is that they're
unhinged." Compared to the more established cartels, Mencho and CJNG were
"hillbilly, backwoods guys who made their reputation crushing up
pseudoephedrine," the analyst says. "They didn't have to wine and
dine Bolivian suppliers, or fly to South America to do international
negotiations. They're not sophisticated. They're very rough."

Members
of CJNG, which experts estimate now posses a war chest worth $20 billion.
"Mencho has been very, very aggressive," says one U.S. investigator.
"And so far, unfortunately, it's paid off."

But as
Mencho quickly built his business, his operation grew more complex. He invested
heavily in submarines, which he used to bring in narcotics from South America.
(According to the former DEA agent, he even hired Russian naval engineers to
help design the subs.) He avoided American scrutiny by focusing on overseas
markets such as Australia, where – as Mori explains – a kilo of cocaine can
fetch quadruple the price it does in the States. ("You send five tons to
Australia, it's like doing 20 here," he says.) Mencho also employed more
earthly techniques, like using fashion models to smuggle in drugs. According to
the former field agent, CJNG traffickers would pose as magazine photographers,
complete with fake credentials, and fly into Mexico with "talent" from
Colombia and Venezuela. Authorities would be so distracted by the women that
the drugs would slip right in.

Mencho
leveraged his power using the twin tools of corruption and intimidation.
Captured CJNG members have testified about how he hates disobedience and likes
to make his victims beg forgiveness before killing them. "This is a guy
who'll execute your whole family based on not much more than a rumor," a
source says. "He just has zero regard for human life." According to
one source who met Mencho, he's a shrewd businessman who doesn't drink, doesn't
have lovers like other cartel leaders do and trusts almost no one.

The
former field agent says he's heard multiple taped phone calls of Mencho talking
to cartel underlings. "These guys are killers themselves, and they were
afraid," the agent says. "He was ordering them around. I don't think
I heard any where he was calm. But he wasn't a hothead. The yelling was very
controlled. He knew what he was doing."

Mencho's
ferocity inspired similar devotion from his troops. "One time there was a
big shootout at a fair," the former agent recalls. "Someone threw a
grenade, and some [CJNG] guys fell on it to avoid Mencho getting killed."
According to the agent, Mencho's ruthlessness also made it hard to recruit
informants against him. The agent once had a source who got close – he had an
address for Mencho. But when the cartel realized he was sniffing around, they
kidnapped the man as well as his teenage son. "They found the father's
body a month later," the agent says. "He'd been tortured. They never
found the kid."

Mencho
also bought off cops. Jalisco's governor, Aristóteles Sandoval, has said that
when he first took office, the state's "greatest vulnerability was the
infiltration of organized crime" into its police forces. According to a
report by Reuters, at one point CJNG had more than half of Jalisco's municipal
police on the payroll – some at more than five times their salaries.
"People stopped trusting the police," said Jalisco Attorney General
Eduardo Almaguer. And the cops Mencho couldn't buy, he terrorized. According to
the former DEA field agent, CJNG inspired an extraordinary degree of fear in
Mexican police, above and beyond that of most cartels. "They were afraid
of [Mencho]," he says. "They didn't want to piss him off."

Then
there was the time (never publicly reported) that Mencho sent a severed pig's
head to the attorney general in Mexico City as a warning. "They put it
right on his doorstep, in an ice chest," the former field agent says.
"I was surprised it was only a pig."

8:47 You have to make it how you can. The European made its wealth and power threw genocide and theft. That is how the United States of America was made. Latin America as a whole is still occupied and no real freedoms exist either economic nor social. You enjoy picking and choosing don't you?

Chemita, please, La Mencha would be nothing without EPN and his apparatchik, they also have about 50 years doing their pedo, that why the mexican cartels beat up the thousands of military, airplanes, ships, generals and polesias of the mexican Narco-government and their north American counterparts...until a new mexican president decides to change get the guard...come think of it, the russians must be heavily involved in mexico because the mexican mafiosos get more brutal and reckless every year.THE DAILY BEAST/ "The Klausmen and Mobsters in Donald Trump's Closet" by Michael DalySpecial honorable mention Joseph Weichselbaum.Hey, a man must have his casinos!

6:27 nobody died, not without help, La Mencha put La Nacha for the mexican government, because they had their understanding since way back when. They never kill your boss and you stay alive to carry on with his business as your personal property without resistance or opposition, and la mencha just steamrolled it all.

@ 7:58, you need to put down the dope, mencho started out in he valle, he has family In London. Small town in the 559. If anyone is familiar with that town they know alll that goes thru an comes out that town. Why they even ran out the police/ sheriff station. So all these keyboard warriors along with e42 put down the pipes and get off the computer for awhile and go live life off the narco blogs.

El menchito got cogido the last time in Zapopan Jalisco, the Air School of the mexican air force used to be there, Nacho Coronel used to run things from jalisco, and the Guadalajara cartel were sinaloenses that moved there to be closer to business with Mexico City. La Mencha used to be a police officer, in jalisco before joining La Mencha.

@11:20 You are right. The Jalisco Cartel was not made by Sinaloenses. It was made by a Duranguense, Nacho Coronel. Right before he was "killed" there were several articles written in Proceso and newspapers that perceived him as big anough to compete with the sinaloa cartel if he went on his own. He made the money and created the routes to Europe. Like this article says, the current CJNG are phyco hillbillies , that is how they have maintained. Chapo being chapo conpired with mencho and los Valencia to have Nacho killed because he was too big. Chapo was thinking, he could just put Alfredito in his place and everything would continue just fine(this is also the reason the army killed el gallo, nacho's nephew. El gallo would have taken Nacho's place). Alfredito obliviously did not work, with a lot of people who had been in line pissed of no happy that this JR was going to give them orders and rebelled against el chapo by making an alliance with EPN's people. El chingon y dueño de GDL fue Nacho Coronel. Y le paso lo que a todos.. se le llego el dia.

lol these narco specialist believe their assumptions lmao.. 5:43 look up armando valencia. if mencho is a offspring of anyone its not of los chapos its of Armandon jefe de jefes compa do your homework b4 you start talking like you know something

More like he chickened out !! He wanted CDS to stop punking them in Jalisco and Colima and El Mayo flat out told them if you dont release them we will kill you and everyone of your family members looks like Mencho won right jaha

If you read the article it clearly said that releasing those spoiled little brats he would get a ransom of millions plus tons of coke. Tontos. Plus mayo is too scared of Mencho, he called a truce in Baja califaz with Mencho because he was getting his people killed.

Yea letting Chapo's two sons go and simply taking "2mil and a lot of dope" is definitely the message Mencho wanted to send. Stupid. Obviously they had to pressure him by kidnapping someone from his family. There is no other possible reason why he would let them go. Everyone calls him a "killer" and this and that. So the message he would want to send is to kill them amd publicize the execution all over the net. This would have definitely showed his "power" but guess what none of that happened. Why didn't it happen? Because maybe he is not as powerful as the govt portrays him to be. And no I am not CDS fan boy or any cartel fan boy. I am simply stating what everyone would expect from a "powerful and killer" like Mencho.

@11:14 yea and start a war? You're so smart, ears are profitable right? He got his message across, the moment he had them kidnapped he let them know that they could be touched and was tripping off of them comming for "revenge" these guys shot a military helicopter down lol if they didn't give a f**k about the government going to war with them, much less your idols lol

Chapitos sons are such known figures that im sure mencho knew killing them would make him an even bigger/quicker target for the government, even though hes already top 3 most wanted. Might as well milk them for their dough and send a message to stop thinking their untouchable. And to not be moving around jalisco as comfortably as they thought they could...i bet you they aint moving around in caravans of escalades and range rovers anymore like the night at the La Leche restaurant..

I wonder as well. BUT to me it is the only thing that makes sense. Chapo still had good communication and ability to conduct business because it was while still in Mexico. The story of a deal came quickly.

What else would have them released...very quietly and seemingly without repercussions or harm?

Who really knows but it's very odd. My theory is that the Chapitos staged their own kidnapping. Sort of theater or show. Fits their personality and selling their side of the conflicts, like propaganda.

Why were they let go so quietly? Didn't you see who came outta the woodwork to get el chapos kids out. No duh they had to let them go. It would have been all over in days if they didn't.And you guys are suppose to be the professionals. Do you guys do this for a hobby?

U guys give chapitos too much credit.. we are all human we can all be touched they are no exception. The fact that people think they are untouchable or that they have 100 armed trucks around them at all times lol not even close busters

The Chapitos are big bastards. First they snitched on their father and celebrated when he got extradiated to the US. Then they staged their kidnapping and attack on them to get rid of Damaso. Soon they will remove Mayo. The Chapitos are slimy snakes and Mencho too fears them. These Chapitos are known to sell and snitch on their own family members.

He's the man now, nobody is above the politicians that let them operate and then lock them up and try to get most their assets. One thing is for sure though, when he gets caught it will be like Tony tormenta but most likely worst. Not like chapo weak busts ( all 3 times)

A psychopath like others. But as always there comes an end. Question is?How long will his reign last? Furthermore, will past government practices assist to his rise of fame? Or firmly stand on the rules of law which they were appointed to serve and protect? Hopefully not the same s**t Mexico is best known for ( inept). E42

6:29 Puras mentiras. And you still listen to the fake corridos right? Lmao. I am sure you would love to have a fake corrido about you. Gtfo man you would piss your pants if you had any of these guys in front of you.

11:23 damn bro chill out you sound like a narco haina. Many of them are tweakers bro and i know from past parties but thats another story. If it wasnt for Papi Mayo and Papi Chapo these drug addicts would would rot in the streets, instead they make them do the dirty work for a bump and a corrido.

Fucken stupid,submarines! What a bunch a crock! These guys don't have 20 billion dlls,maybe 20 million dlls! Mata zetas was them,they named themselves to laugh at El wuero who they were at war with,El wuero was nacho coronels compadre,he worked with nacho but had a fall out,after they killed nacho wuero tryed coming back to Guadalajara but the Cuinis and Mencho were already their,they were friends already and Cuini tryed to fix the war but wuero did not wanna meet then they killed wueros brother in Cancun. And war started! And about the grenade,that did happen...the familia tried killing Mencho but his nephew tryed cover up the grenade and got killed,some of the Cuinis were their also..don't believe all the wack stuff on here

TO THE READER SENDING ME A MESSAGE REGARDING FOTOS, VIA COMMENTS. I would LOVE to see those photos. If your uncle is in the photos I can erase his image. I communicate with his former cellie of the person who you have photos of, the cellie was one of few that are allowed visitations with him. I verified this.

write to me at chvis.martinez@hushmail.com your email will go directly to me using that addy.

A few threads back you asked a similar question. But no one answered. Grupo Sombra aka Shadow Group are against Zetas. They're an independent gang so far. Only time will tell if they get rolled up into the CJNG fold. - Sol Prendido

This is such bullshit! The DEA/CIA etc need to make these villians seem like something out of Batman to get the stupid public go uuuuhhh, ahhhh and oooooh when it comes to promoting their wars.

It was the same with Osama! With him in the end it turns out to be a frail old fart living locked up under supervision of one of our allies which we got to kill with a lot of huuuraaahh and other fucking bullshit.

Chapo is the same and now Mencho. Mencho 'served three years in a U.S. prison' so we know a lot about him and the 'ghost image' is just bullshit.

In the end it comes down to the dope. Everybody wants it and always will and the DEA/CIA/FBI/ etc need their enemies and wars just like a dopie needs his high.

Don't be surprised if El Mencho sanctioned that either. We will never know for sure but if like the article says he can scare killers like the ones in CJNG then I'm willing to bet has done some pretty bad things (to put it mildly) in the past.

Can someone explain to me how they make more off meth than heroin?? Meth is super cheap to make, but isnt it also like 3k per pound?? And they get a key of h in mexico for like 2k $ then that key sells for over 50k wholesale?? I dont get that

Feeds all of those dope heads out in the east, Pennsylvania/virginia/carolinas/ one hit of that and its over buddy. It is a very hard penalized drug in the east, head over here and you'll see mothers running after their own children carrying the family sofa to the pawnshop.. I would never sell that stuff too much heat, marijuana is alot safer but not in excess (:

I don't see how CJNG/Mencho is any more or less ruthless than Zetas or any other cartel. The stories all sound as gruesome as any. Ive read plenty of equally horrible stories about other cartels, yet Mencho is the new mystical tough guy. All media hype about how one cartel is somehow worse than a previous just because they are the new dominate trash.

Its pretty simple. Los menores were betrayed from and were scooped from jalisco. The higher ups got involved, Release them or all out war cartel vs cartel. Goverment got involved and referi to end the potential fight to burn citys and bodies.

Yes these two cartels are at war but not all their cells. They are fighting from town to town slowly gaining or loosing control. Out loud wars means govt butts in and takes on both sides thats the agreement.

@8:22 @2:20 Mexican White not that garbage tar -nobody wants that garbage east of the misissippi- And fyi frank lucas was getting SEA #4- something thats almost non existant in the usa nowadays. A key of that in the us, today, would probably run closer to 100kIf you can answer my question, id appreciate it

6:01 follow the money mister cop, Crack was invented for the poor huddled masses because the children of Ritchie Ritch were not consuming beautiful nice cocaine fast enough, and heroin was not fashionably available on LatinAmerica's cornfields, Meth is today the working man's upper, beer stinks too much st work, and workers always have money for some, it spills always to the rich progressive rabble and hippies you know?